Cable Giant Charter Once Again Jacks Up Broadband Prices
from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept
Cable giants like Comcast and Charter continue to struggle to retain traditional TV subscribers, so they’re extracting their pound of flesh from their captive cable broadband customers that have no alternative ISPs to flee to thanks to a continued lack of competition in the United States.
Both companies were quick to jack up broadband prices during the pandemic. More recently, in a giant middle finger to net neutrality, Comcast announced it would force you to use Comcast hardware if you want faster speeds. Now, Charter Communications, whose broadband services are sold under the Spectrum brand, is informing 9.5 million users they’ll soon be seeing price hikes.
As with most companies, Charter vaguely blamed inflation for the $5 monthly price hike on most of its tiers:
Executives mentioned plans to hike broadband prices on Charter’s Q3 2022 earnings call, stating the move was a response to inflationary pressure. However, they didn’t provide specifics. In a statement to Fierce, a Charter representative confirmed rack rates for its service tiers will be increasing $5 per month. The change will take effect in most markets starting November 1.
These price hikes would have arrived regardless of inflation. And these companies can routinely jack up prices because they see no competitive or regulatory penalty for doing so. In Charter’s case it was restricted from imposing broadband usage caps and overage fees due to conditions affixed to its merger with Time Warner Cable, but those restrictions have sunsetted, meaning caps won’t be far behind.
AT&T also raised prices by $3 for all of its customers. Cable company Altice jacked up prices by $10 for all new customers. In wireless, Verizon also jacked up prices, while one-time industry darling T-Mobile informed everybody they’d be implementing a new $35 fee for all activations and upgrades.
Just another round of incredible innovation from an industry that already charges Americans some of the highest prices in the developed world for what’s very often substandard service and comically terrible customer support. It’s the kind of freedom you get to enjoy when you not only don’t have many competitors, but have figured out how to cripple the nation’s top telecom regulator for six straight years.
Filed Under: broadband, digital divide, fcc, high speed internet, monopoly, price hikes, telecom
Companies: charter, charter spectrum
Comments on “Cable Giant Charter Once Again Jacks Up Broadband Prices”
Re:
Capitalist notions of price discovery don’t consider fairness. If someone could answer that question, then communism would have worked.
Re:
Capitalist notion of fairness is that of voluntary-exchange.
both Buyer and Seller must voluntarily agree to the specifics of any purchase of a good or service — otherwise no exchange happens.
that notion has worked well for millenia across the globe.
Any fraud or coercion in an exchange is most certainly not part of the formal Capitalist economic concept — but is a separate issue of criminality, common in all aspects of human interaction.
Even tiny bluespan
Bluespan in Arizona/Washington just tacked on a 5% bullshit cost increase. In fact, that was the subject line of my ticket: “Bullshit charge on bill”. It appeared on my latest invoice as “AZ Carrier Cost Recovery”. They never responded to a direct email. All telecom companies are lying weasels.
Re: ... their reply
Hi Jeff,
Re: Re:
The ISP’s argument is that false advertising and false prices are not contract violations as long as the ISP equally violates every customer’s contract.
Re: Re: Re:
ISP response…”Pray we don’t make it even more the same.”
Don’t sweat it. They’ll just raise prices on internet service to make up for their losses when:
-“cord cutters” (LOL)
-content creator price hikes
-eat the rich tax increases
Calm down. Geeeez
By the subscribers themselves.